Top Law Schools

I know ED hurts scholarship chances in that you can't leverage back-and-forth, but do schools tend to factor that in when providing scholarship offers at time of admission? In other words, does it remove scholarship opportunities only post-admission (when you attempt to leverage, presumably), or both post-admission and at time of admission?

Take the Hamilton at Columbia, for example. Has anyone ever been offered it after EDing? It's clear the scholarship is an attempt to drag people from HYS, so if someone (for some reason) ED'd to Columbia and was still competitive for HYS would Columbia even consider offering them the Hamilton if they had already secured an ED commitment?

EDing means you are contractually obligated to either attend that school or not attend law school at all that year. So yes, it all but destroys your chances at large scholarships. I have heard of schools like U Chi giving like five or ten thousand a year to students and I think UVA also gives out some nominal scholarships to ED applicants. It's not the norm by any means. But there is no way Columbia would give anyone who EDed a Hamilton. If you were admitted to Columbia ED you aren't competitive at HYS because you are required to withdraw your applications from there. The bigger question is if your numbers are competitive for a Hamilton why would you ever ED?

Clearly not. There's no reason why they would.